PATIENT HANDLING The New Frontier
How did we care for people before the pandemic and what lessons have been learnt to date? Peter Bewert, Amanda Bewert and Mary Kneale of Meaningful Care Matters, try to gauge what the care sector’s new normal will look like.
life, letting them know they are worthy, respected, valued, and equal to the person applying the care. It’s about the connections and relationships that matter.
Our new normal must have this at its core without compromising clinical best practice. This is not an oxymoron as indeed these realities can exist together. The importance of this meaningful connection between the carer and the person being cared for cannot be emphasised enough. This is the foundation of our new norm.
Peter Bewert, Managing Director of Meaningful Care Matters
The unprecedented impact of COVID-19 has been felt across almost all industries globally. The majority of businesses and organisations have had to either close or adapt to cope with the virus outbreak and the stringent social distancing measures put in place.
Indeed, one of the hardest hit industries has been care. Hospitals and social care environments have been stretched to breaking point as they juggle the challenges of supporting those impacted by the virus without compromising care, and trying to maintain a sense of normality in an environment where normal can no longer be defined.
While we slowly move away from the immediacy of the pandemic crisis in the UK, we need to consider how our care practices have changed in 2020. How did we care for people before the pandemic and what lessons have been learnt to date? The ultimate question is how will our care practices change again as we move forward? What is our new normal?
The importance of meaningful connections in care is fundamental in getting the best out of both the person being cared for and the carer themselves - it always has been and always will be. For a care home to flourish in a post-COVID-19 environment, the key is the same as it has always been – that is, operating in a way that works best for the person receiving care, as opposed to a task-based approach.
The greatest lesson from Covid-19 is that people and life matter and therefore, how can we tolerate a social care system purely based on getting the job done? A level of care that’s bespoke to the individual will enhance their quality of
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Unfortunately, the social distancing, social shielding and PPE brought in to help control coronavirus has made maintaining meaningful connections more challenging, particularly in cases where people need to be physically handled and manoeuvred as part of supporting them. Before the outbreak, for example, a carer may have spent significant time with someone who is supported with their movement and walking needs. Support plans are likely to have elements in place utilising a variety of manual handling techniques, including mechanical equipment in some instances to facilitate motion and movement.
The current lived reality of infection control procedures has become, in some instances, a conundrum. Carers, donning masks, gloves and gowns, may be enacted out of good intentions by focussing on safety, care and concern, however, these interventions are oſten enacted out of fear and misinformation. When we consider the implications of care and provision of physical assistance, there are circumstances which require these interventions, although it should not be a blanket rule as this creates a detrimental impact on the meaningful connection with the person. Revisiting the example above, even without donning all aspects of PPE, which has become a part of our daily norm, some care team members may now try to get in and out of that person’s room as quickly as possible.
Furthermore, we need to ensure that our infection control measures such as using appropriate cleaning processes where we wipe down surfaces and hoist straps before leaving the room, are undertaken in a way which does not further reinforce a ‘them and us’ barrier. We need to ask the question: what does this look like to the person receiving the care? Whilst we rewrite our new norm, we need to find ways of being different in our approach without compromise to infection control protocols and procedures to ensure the safety of everyone, nor sacrificing the meaningful connections that may have taken weeks, months, or even years to build and nurture. As frontline workers, we understand this to be a short-term practice that benefits both parties, but for the person receiving the care, the fragmented connections can have a long-term impact.
www.tomorrowscare.co.uk
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